Scars

"Doonesbury" cartoonist Garry Trudeau accused Sen. Bob Dole of invoking his war wounds in his presidential campaign. This prompted former Sen. Charles McC. Mathias, a frequent critic of Senator Dole's policies, to respond, "In the 35 years that we have known each other, and been in daily contact for much of that time, I have never seen Bob Dole attempt to exploit his scars of battle." Others who know Senator Dole say the same thing.But the senator's World War II heroism and suffering are in fact one of the distinguishing characteristics of his last presidential campaign, which he formally began yesterday.

SARASOTA, FLA. -- Third baseman Manny Machado, who is rehabbing from left knee surgery in October, has not run in five days due to discomfort caused by the breaking up of scar tissue - a setback that makes an already optimistic return by Opening Day seem even more tenuous. “Certainly, it looks [like Opening Day is out]. I'm not there yet,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “I'm not going to throw that wet blanket over that yet. I know Manny's not.” Showalter said although it may seem ominous, the delay in running is a precautionary measure and something that can occur with these type of surgeries.

'Closets'When: April 26-28, 8 p.m.Where: Mainstage Theatre, Towson State University.Tickets: $5.Call: 830-2787.*** 1/2 Closets are where we jam the debris we don't want anyone to see. In Splitting Image Theatre Company's "Closets," these cubicles conceal the psychological debris accumulated by four adult characters who have spent years attempting to deal with -- or deny -- child abuse.Presented as a work-in-progress at Towson State University, as part of the Experimental Theatre Festival co-sponsored by the Theatre Project, this movement-theater piece is an original, empathetic, highly accessible treatment of a difficult subject.

Elizabeth Klein is used to the spotlight, but there was something the budding actress from Bethesda didn't want everyone to see. That was a telltale mark on her throat from thyroid surgery. "I don't want every character I play to have the same scar," said Klein, who had a thyroidectomy on Jan. 10. "It's a very obvious scar. " But Klein doesn't have a scar, at least not a visible one, anymore. Her doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital have recently begun offering a "facelift" style procedure that hides evidence of surgery behind her ear and under her hair.

HAVING PRESIDED over the destruction of every other structure Israel built in the Gaza Strip during its 38-year occupation and settlement adventure there, the Israeli cabinet reversed itself and voted Sunday to leave standing 19 structures used as synagogues by the Gaza settlers. Bad idea. The cabinet, having come to its senses by allowing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to proceed with his evacuation plan, lost its senses over the synagogues. In fact, only two weeks before, the same cabinet had wisely reaffirmed an earlier decision to destroy the synagogue structures.

The photos of tiny children, with bellies swollen and arms an legs pathetically thin, show the misery of Somalia. What they can't show is that many, even with emergency help, will be forever scarred by the famine that grips their country.Aid workers say 300,000 people have died so far; the total could reach 500,000 by the end of the year.Relief agencies are feeding 3.2 million people a day, but a third of the population of 6 million remains threatened by starvation. And the youngest generation -- children under 5 -- could be wiped out in some places.

Jasika Scruggs wasn't in the market for another dog. But while at the shelter for an event, she saw those layers of marshmallow cream fur and the leathery black button for a nose, and she dropped to her knees in front of the cage. It was, as she says, love at first sight. At second sight ... well, Scruggs is seeing the pup quite differently. The Labradoodle she named June didn't eat for the first week. It was days before she relieved herself. She made no eye contact. The dog's separation anxiety is so profound, Scruggs says, she wreaks havoc if left alone, even for just a few minutes.

NAIROBI, Kenya -- "You know, when you have the scars," Rebecca Gicuku said, "everybody is staring at you. They tell you, `Sorry.' I don't feel comfortable. It reminds me of the horrible day."Gicuku, 27, was composed enough to talk as a doctor dug two incisions the shape of the letter W into her forehead. She winced. The anesthetic was not working well.But it seemed worth the pain. The doctor was a plastic surgeon smoothing down two bulbous scars, evidence in flesh of the bomb blast that killed more than 200 people on Aug. 7 and wounded 5,000 others.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - The scars, plum-red and raised like welts, line his arms and wrists. They are the graffiti left by the bullets that flew through his body and the surgeries that saved his 18-year-old life. It has been almost four months since Lance Cpl. Michael Wayne Meyer was shot eight times by a Syrian fighter who popped up in a field south of Baghdad. Now Meyer is 9,000 miles from Iraq, limited to light duty on this Marine Corps base where rolling hills dip into the Pacific Ocean.

Her voice -- once so commanding that she was captain of her high school cheerleading team -- quivered and faltered, reduced to something of a husky stage whisper. She stumbled over words that used to trip flawlessly off her tongue in English and Spanish. And the dark hair that once fell in gentle waves to her shoulders now clings to her head in tight curls, hiding the scars that zigzag across her skull from so many surgeries. "I obtained numerous permanent scars all over my body, but the emotional scars I obtained hurt the deepest," Shannon Pierre-Jerome, 18, told a judge yesterday.

Can you forgive someone who tried to kill you? How far do the bonds of family bend until they break? This season, Debra has been struggling with killing LaGuerta, wishing she had killed Dexter instead. Vogel brings her back to the site of the incident to help her get through it. Part of her recuperation is watching an old session of Vogel with Harry as he tried to work through living with Dexter. Dexter has stayed away, trying to give Deb some space, but he insists that he needs Deb in his life.

Bullying is in the news a lot lately, and for good reason. Being bullied can be a searing, scarring experience, and in some ways, it might be a bigger problem than it ever was. In adulthood, we often push aside the memories of being bullied, try to forget it ever happened. But for those who've gone through it - and there are many - the dread, shame and even panic at being the butt of childhood bullying can last a lifetime. We live in an age when consciousness has been raised about the humiliation one youngster can inflict on another.

I'm from the part of Baltimore that was knocked down. I grew up with a clear line of sight to the giant white letters spelling "Johns Hopkins" on the hospital's Monument Street campus. It was like my neighborhood's version of the Hollywood sign: tall, prestigious and distant, despite being just blocks away. This was the '80s, years before large sections of Baltimore's Middle East were seized under eminent domain and leveled after being scouted as the setting for a biotechnology park.

Nick Johnson said a MRI on his sprained right wrist showed only scar tissue, meaning there is no new damage to a wrist he has injured multiple times. “Nothing torn or any of that stuff,” said Johnson, who hurt the wrist on a swing Wednesday. “So that's a pretty good sign.” Johnson said he will have to wear a brace for at least seven days and then be re-evaluated. He doesn't know a specific timeline for a return yet. “Keep this brace on for a week, take some pills and we'll see how it goes in a week,” he said.

Baltimore County police are trying to identify a man's body they found floating in the Back River last week. On Sept. 8 at about 12:30 p.m., police responded for a call of a body floating in the water near Exit 38 of the Baltimore Beltway — the intersection of Eastern Ave. and I-695 near Essex. Police said the marine unit recovered the body from the water, and the victim was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for an autopsy. Preliminary autopsy results showed that the victim is a white male, at least 40 years of age, approximately 5-foot-11 and weighing 155 pounds, according to police.

A former tenant is suing a Cockeysville apartment complex for $100,000 over a bedbug infestation, claiming that the property owners did not properly warn her about and exterminate the blood-sucking insects and that she suffered "scarring and disfigurement" from the bites. The tenant, Amber Croshaw, contends that she suffered "embarrassment, mental and emotional distress, and fear about the presence of bedbugs that affects [her] to this day" as a result of the infestation in the apartment in the Briarcliff Apartments East complex in Cockeysville, according to the lawsuit filed this month in Baltimore County Circuit Court.

The scars on Brian Knighton's right arm and forehead are a permanent reminder of the "hard-core" professional wrestling matches he has participated in during the past 17 years. Beneath the surface, the Fells Point native carries emotional scars that cut deeper than any flesh wounds, the result of a self-destructive lifestyle that has claimed the lives of several peers. Having spent half his life spilling his blood for little money in bingo halls and high school gymnasiums on the independent wrestling circuit under the name Axl Rotten, Knighton knows all too well about the unforgiving, cutthroat nature of the industry.

PAUL TERRELL excels at second impressions: His smile lights deep, dark eyes; an old-fashioned courtesy greets visitors at the door; an exuberance propels his playground stunts and fuels his karate kicks.It is almost enough to erase the first impression of an 8-year-old with an old man's hairline, of the small, scarred face that maps a ruptured world. Sometimes the boisterous third-grader falls suddenly quiet. His eyes well up with memories of just how much he has lost.Two years ago a house fire swept away his mother and six brothers and sisters, and left him almost dead, his face, legs and hands badly burned.

When Liane Lefever complained to her doctor about a persistent ear ache, an examination found a much more serious problem: a brain tumor. For many Americans, that diagnosis could have led to invasive surgery — including slicing open her skull — and a long recovery. But with an innovative procedure being pioneered by two doctors from Johns Hopkins Hospital, her tumor was removed through a small incision in her eyelid. "When you tell people you had brain surgery, the first thing people always do is look for a scar, and that's what's amazing, there isn't one," said Lefever, 47, who lives in Manheim, Pa. "Anyone who needs to go through this should know it's not that big of a deal even if it sounds like it is."